I’m freshening up an old hardtop, I was wondering if anyone had a photo of the seal that goes behind the mounting bracket? Also what’s the best place to obtain the new gaskets TIA!
I’m not sure if there’s an official seal number for that- it may just be a small square piece of closed cell foam. As for supplier, I would highly recommend COH Baines in the UK for whatever seals they may have for this application. After that you should ask others about their luck with the USA “usuals”.
My original base pads had deteriorated as well. I made a paper template before removing them (they literally fell apart when I did so) and I made replacements using a 3/8" thick closed cell foam of medium/medium-high density. The finished result is below. I’m not aware of any jaguar specialists that carry this pad.
I still have the template and would be happy to mail a copy to you if it would help.
Good luck with your hardtop project!
Brian
I was unaware of this pad!
some dimensions would be a good start
Thanks! I I will make my own from the dimensions from my original.
Thanks. Looks like the original was rubber? Did you find closed cell foam works ok – don’t remember how much this compresses.
more than adequate thanks
I had a section of 3/8" thick closed cell foam in my stash of material odds and ends so that’s what I used. It is fairly dense. I believe that its purpose is twofold; seal the gap between the top of the B-pillar and the bottom of the hardtop and to provide some support the base of the hardtop.
I temporarily installed this seal along with the hardtop to body seal to fit the hardtop to our car prior to applying paint. I had to adjust the profile of our hardtop’s bottom edge to obtain a consistent margin between the top and the body (particularly over the wheel arches). This enabled the body seal to seat nicely across the entirety of the body profile.
A photo of my trial fitting exercise may be seen below. You can see how the aforementioned seal fits between the B-pillar and the base of the hardtop. It’s also worth mentioning that there is an L-shaped section of plywood screwed to the fiberglass. This section of wood is not visible after the headliner is glued in place. Like my base seals, both wood pieces were very deteriorated. I used the fragments to create replacements.
As I don’t have a means to measure its density and I don’t have a reference for the material that I used, I would say that it is medium to medium-high in density. I cannot compress it completely between my index finger and thumb.
I hope this helps.
Brian
Just to make sure I have mine placed right – mine was totally gone, is this where it lays on yours:
Here it is on the car off to the side for reference:
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This is the original orientation as found on our hardtop. the long portion of the seal faces forward and the short portion faces toward the outside of the top. The small notch at the end of the long portion abuts up against the fiberglass window opening flange that protrudes downward from the base of the top.
I hope this helps.
Brian
Im still having a problem finding the right 3/8 foam…
Do you mean this one? If so I’ve never seen anyone offer it. I purchased some EPDM 3/8" rubber and cut my own out. It’s just supposed to block airflow at that gap.
I’ve used a surplus piece of the half inch thick EPM foam cushion mat I have over my workshop floor, sliced down to 3/8”. This stuff. Works perfectly. Yeah, doesn’t help you much unless you just happen to have some hanging around. Great for standing on for hours while at a work bench. Easy on the feet and legs.
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I do have some of that but the ridges concerned me…were you able to flaten them out?
The material is a half inch thick. I sliced off an eighth inch from the patterned side to reduce the thickness to 3/8ths. Contact cement applied to the sliced surface and bonded to the hardtop, leaving the flat, factory surface that seals against the car.
Somehow this makes sense but not oriented like the original as shown by Brian_T …
After fiddling with various configurations of this elusive piece Ive come to some conclusions…
I agree that the long portion of the J should be foreward and the hook to the outside. This is because the long portion must extend foreward of the edge of the top and mate up with the lower part of the window seal…This provides a gapless seal at the lower edge…The hook of the J must also be .deep enough to fully seal its gap with the side of the top…
The dimensions given above did not work for me…but are a starting point